Shout out to Svaglic for PM’ing me that one of these came up for sale recently on the Bay. Very much appreciated.

Long time coming, I’ve been casually hunting these models (both the 001 and 003 4s15-7000) for quite some time. These are sort of the grail watch model series for mid 90’s Seiko mid range, as they have a number of outstanding features.

Not the least, an extremely reasonable and comfortable 40mm case! Hallelujah, a modestly sized Seiko diver.

Add to that the fantastic 28,8k bph 4s15, titanium construction, a monocoque case, and a primitive but cool ratcheting diver’s clasp, and you have a very unique and interesting dive watch that exemplified Seiko’s efforts at an upmarket resurgence of automatic watchmaking in the 90’s. These models fed directly into the also short lived SKX403 titanium dive watch, but with a 7xxx series movement.

These were produced only for 2 years in the mid 90’s, so along with their sister Alpinist models (SCVF005, 007, 009), they are relatively rare and appreciably interesting for a Seiko collector.

Very happy to add one to my collection, alongside my Alpinist SCVF005.

"When a watchmaker puts an eyeglass into his eye to examine something that another watchmaker has made, he's not looking for an opportunity to praise that man, he's looking for imperfections." George Daniels